Partners

Leon County Schools

Restoring the Civic Mission of Florida’s Schools

The Leon County School District (LCS) has viewed Florida’s new middle school civics course requirement as more than an opportunity to implement a semester of civics. District leadership and teachers have seen it t as an opportunity to strategically rethink the role of civic education across all schools and all grades. As a result, the district has implemented an innovative conceptual framework that spans all of its elementary, middle and high schools. Guided by teacher working groups, the LCS civics curriculum emphasizes active learning of both the principles and the mechanics of democratic governance.
As it has developed its civic education initiative, the district has been guided by the principles outlined in the 2002 report, The Civic Mission of Schools. In preparing that report, a national panel of experts reviewed all of the available research and concluded that effective approaches to civic education have the following characteristics:

  • A deliberate, intentional focus on civic outcomes such as students’ propensity to vote, to work on local problems, to join voluntary associations, and to follow the news.
  • Explicit advocacy of civic and political engagement. In the process of teaching civic education, educators should encourage their students to participate personally in politics and civil society, including at the local level, although without advocating a particular position or party.
  • Active learning opportunities that offer students the chance to engage in discussions of issues and take part in activities that can help put a “real life” perspective on what is learned in class. These activities can range from collaborative or independent research projects and presentations to simulations, mock trials and elections, service-learning projects, and participation in the student government.
  • An emphasis on the ideas and principles that are essential to constitutional democracy, such as those found in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and how they influence our schools, religious congregations, the workplace, and local, state, and national governments. Students should grasp the relationship between these documents and the problems, opportunities, controversies, rights, and responsibilities that matter to them in the present.

The Florida Joint Center for Citizenship has been pleased to join other organizations including Florida Learn and Serve and the Florida Law Related Education Association, Inc to provide continuing support to LCS in this effort. A variety of resources developed by LCS to support 7th grade civics may be found at http://www2.leon.k12.fl.us/sites/civics/default.aspx. Elementary civics resources may be found at http://www2.leon.k12.fl.us/sites/elementarysocialstudies/default.aspx.